The feasibility of using activated carbon/nitrogen pair as an alternative to metal hydride-hydrogen combination in a compressor-driven sorption refrigerator (CDSR) has been studied in the present article. The motivation behind the selection of this particular adsorbent/adsorbate pair is due to its high heat of adsorption/desorption, in addition to the fact that nitrogen is absolutely eco-friendly and a nonhazardous gas to handle with. A conceptual design of the cooling system has been envisaged for near room temperature applications with this activated carbon/nitrogen pair. In order to evaluate the performance of the CDSR system, mathematical models have been developed separately for the adsorption and desorption processes involving transient heat and mass transfer analysis. The present analysis also helped to conduct a parametric evaluation of the cooling system. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.